Dartmouth Basketball
Predictions Update
Mar 5, 2017
• Dartmouth finished the regular season yesterday by losing to Princeton 85-48.
• We currently rank Dartmouth as the #289 team in the country, and the #8 team in the Ivy.

Dartmouth fell short of our preseason projection of 5 Ivy wins.
• The Big Green will not play in the Ivy tournament this season.

I anticipate next year, based on the per 40 numbers of the returning players, our scoring will increase. Should everyone return, I also think our defense will improve if only marginally.

If this coaching staff returns, and there's no reason to think they won't, hopefully with a full year of D1 basketball under their belts we'll see some growth. Everyone was new to each other. Besides the former Dartmouth player on staff how many of our coaches actually played D1 as players or were head coaches at this level. Experience matters.

There were many instances our guys looked like a D3, D3, and even high school squad. Other coaches I know questioned what we were doing at times. I know a lot of fans here felt the same way. All those people who follow the program closely questioned our moved at times even hoopla who had been the most optimistic of any poster.

I think changing coaches at this juncture might be to disruptive, but adding some real experience to our staff would improve our lot. I think guys bought in from what I could tell from the sidelines, I just don't think what they bought worked well. We can all agree that defensively we were terrible. It was glaringly obvious when we finally played Can Smith who immediately impacted our defense at that position. Additionally, we really didn't give up anything on offense with him in, which caused some to wonder why he wasn't utilized more. Offensively, I'm still scratching my head in why we spent so much time trying to make Johnson a PG. He's clearly a bucket getter and energy guy. Also, when they discovered Barry was a baller why didn't he move to the starting PG position?

I would love to hear the coaches philosophy spelled out clearly, because there's a lot I can't reconcile. We looked stubbornly formulaic a lot of times searching for W's with guys who hadn't played significant minutes their entire career.

Sometimes you have to get out of your own way. There were many instances where guys get going and we'd send them to the bench. We are are either m worst enemy. Nearly all our wins were by single digits. That's a symptom of coaching not to lose. Guys looked pensive on defense. We have fouls to give use them. Yes we want our guys to defend without fouling but we're not there yet. Make them earn it from the line sometimes. I think a philosophy change in that area will improve our defense. Guys can't be hesitant to get in and mix it up.

We only have Evan for two more years. Let's not squander what is arguably the best player in the Ivy League. We had talent this year. Lots of guys showed flashes other guys never hit the floor, and guys with proven skills sat the bench. I think we could have done easy more with what we had. Better luck next year.

That's true. Hopefully McLaughlin increases the Non Conference SOS. I can live with loses if they come against HM competition. That's the best way to learn and level up. But we play not to lose so I don't expect us to take up that kind of challenge.

At this point is all in the books. But I can't let this one go. A quick look at KenPom.com's 2017 National Leaders: Offensive Rating shows that Dartmouth had two players on the lists. Under the 40% usage rate coming in at the very last spot at #100 was Evan Boudreaux. Coming in at #80 at the 20% usage rate was Brendan Barry. Next year he'll play more and start. This year he should have played more and started.

The eye test says he should have started most of the season. More importantly the numbers suggest he should have been playing more minutes. Instead we ran Johnson at the point early and Fleming all year long. I'm suggesting that both the basketball intuition or empirical eye test, as well as, by the data we shouldn't have missed out on so much of what Barry could have offered this team. Oh just for comparative purposes the #79 player..just above our Brendan Barry...some guy named Joel Berry who starts for some school called UNC. IJS

I questioned from the beginning of the season why the AD fired Cormier, who was the best bench coach in the league and recruited the best freshman in the league. It appears that it simply was to get her own guy in there. Bad reason. You don't fire a legitimately good coach who is recruiting well because you might not be able to do it after he has another year or two of recruiting.

At this point is all in the books. But I can't let this one go. A quick look at KenPom.com's 2017 National Leaders: Offensive Rating shows that Dartmouth had two players on the lists. Under the 40% usage rate coming in at the very last spot at #100 was Evan Boudreaux. Coming in at #80 at the 20% usage rate was Brendan Barry. Next year he'll play more and start. This year he should have played more and started.

The eye test says he should have started most of the season. More importantly the numbers suggest he should have been playing more minutes. Instead we ran Johnson at the point early and Fleming all year long. I'm suggesting that both the basketball intuition or empirical eye test, as well as, by the data we shouldn't have missed out on so much of what Barry could have offered this team. Oh just for comparative purposes the #79 player..just above our Brendan Barry...some guy named Joel Berry who starts for some school called UNC. IJS

If the UNC reference is to far afield. Let's take Brown's JR Hobbie. JR shoots it from 3pt range at 46.8%, played about 16.8 Mins a game and took about 5 3's a game. He ranked 27th in the NCAA in 3pt percentage. Our Brendan Berry ranked 33 in the NCAA shot 45.5%, played 18.2 mins a game and only took about 2 3's a game. This is in the Ivy League which leads the NCAA in 3pt attempts.

We did a really poor job of using our talent & strength to our advantage. We really shot ourselves in the foot on that one.

"...no excuses - only results!”

Edited by GoBigGreenBasketball on 03-12-17 10:28 AM. Reason for edit: No reason given.